Winterizing Residential Fridge

[rkymntsno]

Originally Posted by EA37TS

Pressurize you system with antifreeze and run it through the water dispenser and allow enough time under pressure to make pink cubes. This will be my 6th year doing this on a Whirlpool and never had a problem with temps at minus 15 a couple times.

I know that's what some have done even when Jayco and Whirlpool specifically states not to run antifreeze through it. Not sure why but it says not to. But I haven't heard from anyone who's done any damage by doing that.

[dfaulker]

Originally Posted by RipinSC

I you are going to had a bad winter, you may want to do what joggerman listed. That will give your FW system good protection.

Hello, I just ran across this thread. I am a new owner of a 2018 Jayco Designer 39RE. It too came with a whirlpool residential refrigerator. I’m am planning to winterize my 5th wheel soon. I am curious on what you found out on how to deal with the ice maker?

[rkymntsno]

Originally Posted by EA37TS

Pressurize you system with antifreeze and run it through the water dispenser and allow enough time under pressure to make pink cubes. This will be my 6th year doing this on a Whirlpool and never had a problem with temps at minus 15 a couple times.

Ok, got a stupid question. I know how to pump antifreeze through the system and also the water dispenser on the fridge. How do I do that with the icemaker? Do I just leave the pump on and the hose sitting in the antifreeze jug overnight to cycle through for pink slush?

[Textman]

what do you do with the filter? Do you keep in while running the antifreeze through the fridge?

[Lake Huron]

I got a 17 Northpoint with the Fridgidare in mine. Long and short of it I ran about 4 gallons of pink pop thru my water in the door dispenser before I realized it was actually pink pop coming out. The filter in the fridge was working so well it filtered out all the pink dye and anything else so it was coming out like crystal clear water.
I found on Amazon a bypass, or full flow, cartridge. I take out the filter and pop in the bypass cartridge. About 1/4 glass later pink pop starts flowing. I'll let it fill the glass and then cycle the icemaker and watch the water dispenser tube to make sure the pop flows out of it. It normally does right away. I'll drain out my water filter and store it indoors in a bag so I can reuse it the next year. Mine are kind of expensive.

[dkegel]

Originally Posted by Textman

what do you do with the filter? Do you keep in while running the antifreeze through the fridge?

No. Take the filter out first.

Dave

[rkymntsno]

Originally Posted by Textman

what do you do with the filter? Do you keep in while running the antifreeze through the fridge?

Best to take the filter out. IF you leave it in, it will not be pink coming out but will feel slimey and you'll have to replace the filter in the spring. Most just leave it in if their fridge requires a bypass plug and don't have one.

[dfaulker]

Originally Posted by RipinSC

I you are going to had a bad winter, you may want to do what joggerman listed. That will give your FW system good protection.

Thank you, I pretty much followed his method except for the ice maker cycle switch, my refrigerator does not have one unfortunately. I bought my 5th wheel used and the previous owner said he had used the ice maker but he never winterized it because it was kept in a climate controlled pull barn. I don’t plan to use my ice maker or water dispenser because I don’t trust the water to drink at RV parks. I plan to keep the water valve turned off to the frig for now on. Let’s hope
all is good come next spring!

[AndyO]

I'm going to ask what is probably a stupid question, but why worry about winterizing a freezer? I get the fridge water dispenser, but isn't a freezer designed to operate at freezing temps?

[dfaulker]

Originally Posted by rkymntsno

I know that's what some have done even when Jayco and Whirlpool specifically states not to run antifreeze through it. Not sure why but it says not to. But I haven't heard from anyone who's done any damage by doing that.

Unfortunately I do not have any way to manually cycle on the ice maker to run antifreeze threw the lines.

[Zs387RDFS]

Originally Posted by Lake Huron

... I found on Amazon a bypass, or full flow, cartridge.

Please provide a link to this.

[Lake Huron]

Originally Posted by AndyO

I'm going to ask what is probably a stupid question, but why worry about winterizing a freezer? I get the fridge water dispenser, but isn't a freezer designed to operate at freezing temps?

There is a water line that feeds the icemaker. The line itself is run on the outside of the freezer to a solenoid valve that dispenses the water to the inside icemaker via a tube that is mounted at a downward angle so no water can freeze in the tube. Now that freezing outside temps are coming you need to winterize the lines on the outside of it.

[Lake Huron]

Originally Posted by Zs387RDFS

Please provide a link to this.

Omg, that was like 4 years ago! Lol!
Anyway, each model fridge prolly has it's own model filter. Mine takes a ULTRAWF model filter. So I did a google search for "ULTRAWF bypass filter" and found a few out there, back then. I just did a search on amazon for it and got nothing. HOWEVER, doing a google.search I found a bunch out there. Fridgidare sells them for like $45. Discount filters sells them for $30 and I'm sure you can find them on ebay cheaper yet. Give that a try and let us know how you made out.

[dkegel]

Just a reminder on this very old thread... The Whirlpool refrigerator does not need a bypass filter. So if you have that one, you can just remove the filter and winterize.

Dave